I wonder if this would be true for Native languages

Wed Mar 28 01:26:47 UTC 2012

        Another rant maybe. Perhaps 9/10ths of the unseen iceberg as a
metaphor, is these languages were never meant to survive in a so called
'post colonial' New World. Their intentional destruction is 'fact' well
known by the survivors and historically documented. Perhaps language loss is
merely a symptom of why these languages are being lost. Perhaps the problem
is not even with the 'peoples' but external to them and built into the
fabric of what has become 'the Americas'. If there is such a great moral
interest in the survival of endangered indigenous languages and the home and
community are the conduits for language transmission then the family, people
and the community must also be repaired from the ravaging destruction of
both overt, covert and insidious colonialism. Perhaps the people and
communities must be involved in the development of their own language
survival programs in a manner which validates their own intelligence and
worth, culture, cosmology and life paths. There is not much point bringing
into the communities, 'for the people', a pre-formulated pedagogy for
language skills when the real problem is their total cultural, linguistic
and spiritual survival. All of the tribes survived with their myriad of
languages until 'somebody done somebody wrong' and have never identified or
corrected that wrong. It must be understood, accepted and dealt with that
these 'tribal' languages have their own 'already there' which is as
different from everyone else's 'already there'. Their 'already lived in
languages' are as different from each tribe and the rest of the world as
Chinese is from Gaelic. These tribal languages have absolutely no 'cognate'
relationship to any other language than their own dialects and those
languages are generated in a 'primary orality'. Any linguist must be aware
of this...guess I should stop here before I am reminded I am off topic
again...apologies. There is so much more can be said...I live 'inside' this
destruction and loss. I deal with it every day and not from some evangelical
ardor.
        I agree with many of the points you make Rudy outside the idea that
institutionalization can be an solution. Institutions have not yet provided
or even acted on any long term survival, a fact which is becoming even more
apparent as we move with ever increasing speed toward the demise of this
present civilization and perhaps even the earth itself. These endangered
languages are symbiotically tied to the earth and the cosmos. Institutions
have little if anything to offer them other than jobs teaching endangered
languages. You cannot expect these peoples to embrace institutionalization
which has no history of benefits to them...in fact documented evidence to
the opposite. There has to be something new and innovative to accommodate a
new and changed environment. Please don't ask me what it is...I have been
working on it for almost 50 years. My greatest successes happened in the
mid-60s and early 70s.
        During the early 70s, I was a coordinator for Keewatinung Institute,
a cultural, educational and spiritual center for our people in our area. We
were the very first of our kind in Canada. From that position, I had the
absolutely fantastic opportunity of coordinating The Indian Ecumenical
Conference...a gathering of spiritual leaders from as many tribes we could
get representatives from. It was 'ecumenical' in the broader meaning of the
term. We had a Steering Committee of elders and spiritual leaders to help
with the development of logistics and content for the first great gathering
at Morley, Alberta. During the planning sessions over many months and in
many locations, the idea of an 'agenda' came up. The Steering Committee
after thinking on it told us we didn't need an agenda. Those of us 'trained'
to think 'inside the box' felt we had to have plans and objectives and to
know what we were going to do. The elders and spiritual leaders told us what
we would do is to look at how we were 500 years ago, how we look today and
how we want to look in another 500 years. So, that was the 'gist' of our
getting together. I still think of that especially when I hear out tribal
councils and politicians speaking of five year plans, 10 year plans and
sometimes a 20/25 year plan. Our gatherings were very, very successful and
the spin off is still felt today...and we are still at it 40 some years
later. You can read about it in a book entitled 'Around the sacred fire: a
native religious activism in the Red Power era : a narrative map of the
Indian Ecumenical Conference' by James Treat. I am adding a short review if
anyone is interested.

Around the sacred fire: a native religious activism in the Red Power era : a
narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference.
<http://www.google.ca/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22James+Treat%22>
James Treat . Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 -
<http://www.google.ca/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=subject:%22History%22&source=gb
s_ge_summary_r&cad=0> History - 376 pages

<http://books.google.ca/books?id=r-0L3IUPDRQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs
_ge_summary_r&cad=0> Front Cover 

Around the Sacred Fire is a compelling cultural history of intertribal
activism centered on the Indian Ecumenical Conference, an influential
movement among native people in Canada and the U.S. during the Red Power
era. Founded in 1969, the Conference began as an attempt at organizing
grassroots spiritual leaders who were concerned about the conflict between
tribal and Christian traditions throughout Indian country. By the
mid-seventies thousands of people were gathering each summer in the
foothills of the Rockies, where they participated in weeklong encampments
promoting spiritual revitalization and religious self-determination. Most
historical overviews of native affairs in the sixties and seventies
emphasize the prominence of the American Indian Movement and the impact of
highly publicized confrontations such as the Northwest Coast fish-ins, the
Alcatraz occupation, and events at Wounded Knee. The Indian Ecumenical
Conference played a central role in stimulating cultural revival among
native people, partly because Conference leaders strategized for social
change in ways that differed from the militant groups. Drawing on archival
records, published accounts, oral histories, and field research, James Treat
has written the first comprehensive study of this important but overlooked
effort at postcolonial interreligious dialogue.

The closing review statement may sound like it was a failure...it was not or
there would be no global indigenous peoples movement and an increasingly
unified global voice. Treat's book will be the most you ever find on it
because, it was meant to be that way. Our only paper trails were briefs for
funding and resulting financial statements. There were no native 'political'
so called leaders, tribal councils or politicians...they didn't even know it
was happening...not that any of them would have cared. Anyhow, I had best
conclude my rant and thanks for listening...if you did so. I am turtle clan
and usually have slow and sometimes lengthy excursions through my own
thoughts. megwetch....

wahjeh
rolland nadjiwon
_____________________________________
"Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional,
illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream
media,
which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a
piece of shit by the clean end."

-----Original Message-----
From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]
On Behalf Of Rudy Troike
Sent: March-27-12 7:12 PM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages

I agree with James Crippen's concerns about highly endangered languages:

"There's a dangerous temptation to somehow make schooling into the saviour
for highly endangered languages. ... Depending solely on education
institutions to solve language decline just seems to make things worse, not
better, because it encourages people to *not* take an active role in keeping
the language alive."

As I noted in a subsequent post, the Navajo bilingual program at Rock Point,
before it declined, demonstrated that for a Native language, it IS possible
to develop a thorough K-12 curriculum which matches the English curriculum
(but includes native cultural and historical content, and even in math is
sensitive to linguistic features of the language differing from or lacking
in English). Where there are enough speakers to support the effort, it could
be possible in communities like the Dakota to restore the level of literacy
which once existed -- though the window of opportunity is rapidly closing
down.

But as James said, this cannot be carried just by the schools, since real
language learning begins in the home and in interpersonal inter- action.
However, thanks to the tradition of government and parochial schooling, many
if not most parents are unable to provide that 'home nest' for the child.
That is why a community effort like that in New Zealand and Hawaii, to place
young children with older fluent speakers in 'nests' or day-care centers
(better yet, for a whole summer) can be effective in establishing early
natural (not formally instructed) acquisition, which can then be brought to
school and reinforced. A holistic plan is needed which involves more than
just individual families.

One of the perennial problems in Native language maintenance is that
'higher-level' academic competence is non-existent, and community members
and students perceive that there is 'no use' in learning the language since
it has no further 'marketplace' value. Attitudes thus play an enormous role
both in the perspective of the community and of students. Developing
literacy in the Native language is empowering, and even at advanced (high
school and college) levels, if academically advanced materials are
developed, parallel literacy is possible. This is what the Rock Point
program spectacularly demonstrated, and is showing some effect in Cherokee
in Oklahoma as well.

The use of Native languages in schools has, as the new Colorado law has
shown, given institutional recognition to these languages and brought Native
language speakers into the school setting for the first time.
So it is not just an either/or situation -- meaningful school instruction
can provide a mooring-post for communities and families to rally around.

Communities, families, and individuals must ultimately take primary
responsibility for language maintenance and preservation. It can't, as James
says, just be pushed off to schools to somehow magically accomplish alone.
Without motivation, buy-in, and active participation, endangered languages
cannot survive on their own.

  Rudy Troike

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